Social SEO redefined: Improve your search engine ranking

Successful SEO with PR, social media and influencer relations? How the interaction of all communication measures positively boosts your own ranking and why social SEO can do more than just likes and shares.

You’ve added the keyword, used buzzwords, run the Flesch Reading Ease over it and finally the SEO tool is just about green? There is still something going on! Onpage, not only the keyword itself has been important for a long time, but also its semantic environment and secondary keywords, i.e. the entire context of the keywords. Thus, also offpage all communication measures around search engine optimization (short: SEO) should be coordinated.

When it comes to social SEO, opinions still differ as to how much influence Likes, Shares and the like in social media have on one’s own search engine ranking. But we say: Social SEO can be more, because PR, social media and influencer relations have (at least) one thing in common: they live on relationships – whether with editors, bloggers, followers, customers or influencers – and must be built up and maintained over the long term, just like SEO.

Here you can find out how to ensure a good vitamin B for your search engine ranking:

Still new in the SEO business? What successful SEO means to us and how we would improve your search engine ranking, you can find out under Consulting – SEO.

Crash course in PR for SEO experts: How to combine both disciplines

Press relations and content marketing should be coordinated. This not only means that one hand knows what the other is doing, but both areas must merge from topic planning to content playout. For example, focus topics can be defined per month or quarter, which are then gradually assembled from all subsequent content like a puzzle.

Here it is also worthwhile to work with data storytelling. Own reports or analyses can be played out on all channels and deliver long-term, high-quality content that offers real added value for editors and readers. At Mashup Communications, we regularly work with reports on PR, storytelling and social media. These not only generate media attention, but also website clicks and new newsletter sign-ups.

The key is to ask: What data can we provide? What is exciting and offers added value? What do we want to stand for and what discussions do we want to initiate? In the report Visual Storytelling in Gender Contrast, we looked at how women and men are portrayed on the career pages of the DAX30 – with unsurprisingly sexist results. Articles on the topic can be found in WirtschaftsWoche or Human Resources Manager, for example.

We explain why data PR is more than just a press release under Data PR & Data Storytelling.

Just be patient: Long-term relationships lead to good search engine rankings

But what does all this have to do with SEO? For off-page optimization, links from high-quality pages that lead to one’s own website are crucial. As with an authentic recommendation, it is more about the quality than the quantity of these links. Relevant content, visits or a long dwell time make up high-quality pages. So industry experts and online media are exactly the right place for you.

More in-depth content on the website or company blog can be teased by means of PR and thus lead back to you. In addition to exciting content, patience is a must. PR works in the long term and the relationships with online editors need to be strengthened first. Which PR tricks all SEO experts should know can be found in our article on PR for SEO marketers.

Credible recommendations not only for Google: Influencer Relations

They have enormous reach and influence their community with very personal content: influencers. If you only think of beauty and fashion, you’re wrong. Bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers and Twitterers can be found in all industries, from B2C to B2B. They can be integrated into corporate communications with collaborations, joint campaigns, or simply with relevant content. For example, Journelles, one of Germany’s largest lifestyle blogs, reported on our DAX30 report mentioned above.

These blogs and social media profiles are also among the coveted high-quality sites that you want to see linked to your own. And that not only comes across to Google as a credible recommendation, but also to followers, who ensure numerous clicks on your website. You think influencer relations are not only exciting for SEO? In the article Brand before Product! we show what the new power of influencer marketing is.

More than selfies, TikTok dances and funny memes: social media meets social SEO

Even if you sometimes have the feeling that social media is in its own space on the Internet, Google evaluates content on social media, such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, just like any other website. The extent to which social signals are included in the algorithm is discussed again and again, but the SEO possibilities of social media are far from exhausted with likes and shares.

It is important to have a social media strategy that not only takes into account the algorithm of the respective platform (or how much we know about it), but also the community and your own SEO goals. In this way, you can strengthen your brand awareness, attract the attention of industry experts, bloggers and online editors, build a relationship with your target group and ultimately generate website clicks. The better and more widespread your content, the higher the probability that subpages of your website will be linked to high-quality pages. And that, in turn, makes Google happy. You can read more about sophisticated social media strategies here.

Content, content, content!

Everything revolves around high-quality content with which you have to convince online editors, bloggers, influencers, followers and ultimately your customers. Long-term relationships build credibility, trust, and keep people coming back to your site and linking to your content regularly. And you will be rewarded with a good search engine ranking.

Want to improve the SEO of your website or company blog and looking for support? You can find out more about what we mean by good Search Engine Optimization and what a collaboration might look like under Consulting – SEO.